West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1887-06-16
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.


II is said il CO SITS the New York, New
Haven and Hartford Railroad $15, 900 a
year in the waste of steam required 10 do
its footing"
1t has been ascertained that the amount
Of friction in a railroad car wheel is as
the pressure upon il directly, without re-
gard TO surface, time or velocity.
The invention of steel wire nails is
working a great revolution in the nail
business. 1t is estimated that a million
kegs OF steel nails viii be made this
year
When steam is superheated to about
400 degrees it becomes an active source
Of danger. Such superheating is often
the result of the improper setting of
boilers.
1t has recently been found practicable TO
weld metals by electricity which have
hitherto proved impossible to unite. Thus
far pieces of all metals tried have welded
TO other pieces of the same metal.
At Kotzebuc Sound, Behring's Strait.
there is a ridge of ice covered with clay
and vegetable mould, and two miles wide,
in which birches, aldcrs and berry bear
ing plants grow luxuriously.
1t is absolutely asserted that works
have been erected in the neighborhood of
London for the utilization of stable ma
nure in the manufacture of paper, and
that the cost of producing the paper is
next to nothing.
In burning petroleum as fuel for
machinery, the liquid is conducted from
the tanks to the furnaces in pipes, and
burned under the boilers as spray. 1t is
easily regulated, and said to be saving
of seventy per cent.
Prof. Shaler says the actual moving of
the ground in the case of earthquakes is
slight; the Charleston shocks, for in
stance, probably swinging the earth TO
and fro within the space Of an inch At
tention TO good masonry in building
would secure immunity from shocks in
most cases.
A great variety of articles are now
made from wood pulp, including paper:
car wheels, water buckets, household
furniture, etc. Formerly the wood was
held against grindstone and ground up,
but now chemical means are resorted TO
for separating the fibres. The great
variety of uses TO which wood is put
would astonish the occasional observer.
The manguey plant of Mexico has
many uses. 1t is eaten cut up and pre-
served like melon rinds It's long tough
fibre is extensively used in making ropes
and cordagc. The end of each leaf ter
inmates in hard, sharp black thorn.
Break off this thorn and strip down the
tibrcs attached to it and you have a CAPT
tai needle and thread for coarse sewing.
This the muleteers use to mend their sad
dies and broken harness straps The
juice of the plant fermented is the fam
Gus pulque. The pulque is best in these
high regions. 1t isSl viscous midwife
tlnid, very wholesome and sustaining,
and would bc n most agreeable drink if it
"tasted good" In fact, il tastes, when
it has been n few days fermented, like a
mixture of buttermilk and sour cider.
Many strangers become very fond of it.
The older it grows the more Intoxicating
it is.
Near the sea the shifting of sand by
the winds is a familiar sight, and the
drifts are often known to cncroach on
cultivated fields, forests and villages.
Striking examples are found on Lake
Michigan, where the withcred tops of a
forest are visible above a sand drift. and
in Norfolk, England, where farms and
houses have been covered. The same
phenomenon occurs in deserts, the great
sandhilIs being not only carried about
by the wind, but even forced beyond the
proper limits of the sandy wastes. The
extensive Registrar desert, in central
Afghanistan, is reported as being steadily
pushed enthusiastically, and calculations
have shown that its present rate of prog
ress will cause it to overwhclm some of
the most fertile and prosperous districts
of the country in a few thousand years.
In an article on pile driving by ma
chinery Mr.. Clements, a good authority
on the subject, states that some work of
this description which has come under
his observation, shows that piles driven
with the steam hammer have greater
capacity for sustaining loads than those
driven with the drop hammer The in
stance is given of railroad company
which some time ago had several hundred
piles driven TO protect their bridges from
ice; a portion were driven by steam
hammer, and the others by drop ham
mcr, some being in clusters, and n part
standing alone. As matters have proved.
those withstanding the lift Of the ice
have invariably been the ones driven by
the steam hammer